| Publication Type | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Year | 2026 |
| Author(s) | 1. C. Deepika,2. Dr. A. Vasanthi |
| Journal Name | Asian Journal of Research Scholars |
| Volume, Issue | 2, 2 |
| Pagination | 1-12 |
| Article Type | Paper |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.68412/ajrsarticle37 |
Phenomenology, Nostalgia, Temporal estrangement, Diaspora, Existential memory, The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri, Heidegger, Husserl, Bachelard
This article will perform a phenomenological interpretation of the novel The Namesake (2003) by Jhumpa Lahiri that nostalgia in the novel does not serve as a sentimental feeling, but rather a philosophically substantive being-in-the-world. The article builds the notion of temporal estrangement, a state where the migrant self is established in incommensurable chronotopes and cannot wholly exist within a remembered past or lived present, based on the theory of inner time-consciousness by Edmund Husserl, this concept of thrownness (Geworfenheit) by Martin Heidegger, on poetics of inhabited space by Gaston Bachelard and the distinction between idem and ipse identity by Paul Ricoeur. The article tracks how Lahiri’s characters negotiate in the discussion of the topics of diaspora, temporal discontinuity, and the ethics of cultural memory, the article introduces the phenomenological model with the Svetlana Boym division into restorative and reflective nostalgia, the theorization of diasporic identity as be-coming brought forth by Stuart Hall, and the introduction of the concept of the chronotope by Mikhail Bakhtin. It finds that The Namesake is neither a comforting story of assimilation, but a strictly honest story of being a person who inhabits the world of complete irreversible dis-placement, a world whereby nostalgia is revealed to be the ultimate form of dwelling open to people whose origin nor residence will never completely overlap.